Summary

Data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) has been used to demonstrate that positive social support from friends, family etc. is associated statistically with a reduced risk of developing dementia. Conversely, negative social support appears to increase the risk.

Positive support was taken to involve having “a reliable, approachable and understanding relationship with spouses or partners, children and other immediate family”. Negative support, on the other hand, was typified as the experience of critical, unreliable and annoying interactions with spouses or partners, children etc.